Pic-Less

It was a perfect winter day in January, too bad it's March tomorrow. It was cold, with a starting temp of 6, count 'em 6 whole degrees. We gained 10 degrees by the time we got home. Not even close to Spring. I have to admit though, it was really beautiful out. The sun and sky had worked pretty hard at cleaning up and had emptied everything out except royal blue. Fresh snow, bright sun....nothing could have produced a more high definition day.
We went out on the LRT just like last Saturday, except this time it was plowed. Guess who I saw? The guy with the light blue ski mask. He was at the intersection of his plowed path, from the townhouses, and the LRT. I made everybody stop and I pulled up to him. He had on all the same clothes. I said, "Hi I'm Tom, we met a few days back when the trail hadn't been plowed". It was hard, but I could see a smile through the mouth hole of his ski mask. He said, "yes", like he knew who I was before I had said my name. After watching him use his sense of hearing and touch last week, I'm quite sure he recognized my voice, in like one or two words.
I simply said, "it's nice to see you again, I hope you have a great walk, it's a perfect day, and the trail is plowed!" He said, "it is, thank you", and we rode off.
We played hard, which kept us plenty warm. The trails were in good shape for the most part, but I think the plows must have been playing with us little. There were areas that were cleared to the limestone, and then parts that had a good inch of snow on them. There was even a stretch of maybe 200 feet, just before Cty Rd 19, that hadn't been touched. Well...there were plow tracks, but the plow driver just lifted the plow, and left a good 6-8 inches. I tried to stay in the tire tracks...big mistake...I went down, but it was very graceful. On the way back, I knew better what to expect, and stayed up all the way through. I did have to wait for Steve and Cam. Apparently Steve was making snow angels after he went down.
Cam and I stopped in at Excelcycle and got free pastries and coffee, while Steve stopped at Dunn Bros. to buy his. He mumbled something about wanting to help out the economy.
Got back to the cities with about 35 miles on, so looped around Cedar Lake, Isles and Calhoun to finish off a very nice ride. 50/13.8

Peace Through Bikes

I enjoy the website fixedgeargallery.com
Today I was looking through the bikes that have been built by people all over the world, and found the following pictures and post.

Howdy! My name is Goran Saric, I live and work in Zagreb, capital of a small western Balkan country called Croatia ;) It's no heaven on Earth but it's relatively nice to live here.. Of course, it could be better, but why complain :)) For those Americans (and everybody else) that don't know, war ended almost 15 years ago :))) OK, now to business - this is my first fixie, but definitely not the last: frame is Geros (some oldish Italian brand) with Campi parts (headset and bottom bracket); rims are Sun MZ-14 with Formula hubs; saddle Ritchey Pro Streem; seatpost Shimano; other parts are some "no name" brands. Gear ratio is 46/16. Now I'm just waiting for the weather to get better so I can take it to the streets.. Bye and thnx for a great site.. Goran

It's great to be brought closer together by something as simple as a bike.

New Bar Tape For Old Blue

Hard to tell I took the day off the bike, and am kind of bored, huh?

Perfectly Snowy

Snow didn't hit until about noon, but then it was a dumping, with accumulations of 2 1/2 inches an hour. I decided to keep the workout inside. The usual 2 hours on the elliptical.

Storm's Coming

Pre-storm ride was nice, albeit windy. Saw Steve on the greenway and we hooked up for about 15 miles. Nice talking to him. 30/14.9

Lactic Acid

Well the build up of lactic acid from Saturday's ride/slog seems to have finally flushed out of my quads. At least they're not yelling at me any more. My anaerobic abilities are severely lacking. Just because I hate, and rarely do anaerobic training...

The Evil One was belly aching on the ride tonight. Pretty noisy, with lots of creaks and pops. Ok so he needs some maintenance. 27/15.0

I'm not much of a morning person, so it'll almost always be sunsets.
Lake Harriet

No Studs

Rode stud-less. Just hate the idea of putting the studs back on the Evil One. The roads are surprisingly clear for just having had a 5 inch snow storm Friday night. The late winter sun gets the ice off fast. Still, as wimpy as it makes me sound, 25 degrees...I was feeling the cold.
I've definitely got road fever. I'm getting bored with the paths and trails and want to get out on my road bike, for some good old Hammer Hundreds. 28/14.1